Re: <nettime> Vice > Peter Sunde > I Have Given Up

[Fenwick Mckelvey <mckelveyf@gmail.com>]

   Hi all,
   Thanks for sharing. I have always found the comments of Peter Sunde
   provocative to say the least and an interesting moment of reflection
   about tactical media. IMHO the Pirate Bay remains a seminal case of
   media activism (all things considered) especially to see someone like
   Sunde still receive quasi-MSM attention years after the trial. I often
   wonder if the case could be made that TPB was a kind of populist
   movement. (I wrote about it long ago in my MA
   thesis: http://www.fenwickmckelvey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The_Code_and_Politics_of_Drupal_and_The.pdf ). That was always a key
   moment in TPB:AFK when they watched the reaction to their trial in the
   news.
   The interview marks a further turn away from TPB for Sunde. He's been
   talking about a web of ruin approach for a while, calling on TPB to
   close
   (https://torrentfreak.com/peter-sunde-the-pirate-bay-should-stay-down-141210/). It was in line with a kind of e-hydra approach to the
   Internet in that the closure of TPB might have given space for a new
   formation to emerge. That window of digital activism for Sunde seems to
   have closed.
   In Sunde's comments, I notice a relationship with TPB and
   accelerationist politics. I've always wondered how much you might think
   of TPB as accelerationist based on Rasmus Fleischer's blog post:
   http://copyriot.se/2010/01/13/pirate-politics-from-accelerationism-to-escalationism/. In re-reading his comments, Rasmus suggest a turn
   toward escalationism (and toward VPNs) that seems to resemble Sunde's
   own comments about electing Trump. This has me wonder how long
   accelerationism or interpretations of it have been a part of the TPB's
   media tactics. I'm still very much working through and disconcerted by
   accelerationism, but its interested to think of TPB in relation to the
   trend.
   Best,
   Fenwick

   On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 at 17:31 Jonathan Marshall
   <Jonathan.Marshall@uts.edu.au> wrote:

     Peter:
     >> I'd say that the biggest 'meme'-hijack of the last 40 years has been
     >> equating the idea of 'freedom' with the right to purchase - end of
     >>story.
 <...>


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